Category Archives: Battles: Fort Sanders

Artillery supported the 13th Regiment’s charge against Fort Sanders at Knoxville in the ice and snow of winter, 1863. The big guns were spread out so far around the southern curve of the battlefield that their commander had to use … Continue reading →

Zouave troops were common on both sides of the Civil War, ordinary Americans who chose to distinguish themselves by unusual and presumably expensive uniforms: baggy red pantaloons, embroidered jackets and fez or low turban hats cocked on the backs of … Continue reading →

Minutemen of Attala Private Nimrod Newton Nash’s wife Mollie L. Campbell whom he married in 1855. She was the principal recipient of most of his good letters which lend so much verisimilitude to The Bloody Thirteenth and an understanding of the … Continue reading →

Although convened in February, 1864, McLaws’ court martial for dereliction of duty in the assault on Fort Sanders at Knoxville, was on-again, off-again, for the next several weeks. Finally, on March 11, the trial commenced at a private home in … Continue reading →

Camp Chase Prison, then on the western outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, was not the worst Union prisoner of war camp. Some say that distinction goes to Point Lookout, in Maryland. But overcrowding and little food encouraged diseases such as smallpox … Continue reading →

After the failed first-light attack on Fort Sanders, General Burnside offered his old West Point classmate General Longstreet a flag of truce. “The morning being very cold and frosty, and the enemy’s wounded in our ditch and in front of … Continue reading →

By Nov. 28, 1863, the siege of Knoxville was entering its second week. Longstreet, who had been dithering on the question of where best to attack the Union defenses, had finally settled on one—the red-dirt Fort Sanders (above, looking west) … Continue reading →